NEWS ITEM

Medley Boat Station Inquiry

Crittenden replies

There can be few people who are unaware of the struggle which has been going on for a long time concerning Medley Boat Station and the objections to the encroachment of Mr. Crittenden's enterprise onto the land of Port Meadow and which culminated recently in the Inquiry which will present evidence to the Secretary of State to the Department of the Environment - the Echo has had numerous articles reporting the state of play and it has even caught the interest of the national media. Clearly, people feel strongly about one of the few unspoilt areas of open land in their neighbourhood, and various local Residents' Associations, the Commoners and graziers of Wolvercote and other interested parties put forward their views at the Town Hall - some of them have organised petitions, and in the case of Wolvercote Commoners, raised large sums of money to employ counsel to represent their interests.

Of course, it is only fair to point out that some think it is all a storm in a teacup, but others are afraid that it is the thin end of the wedge. Almost all the publicity about Mr. Critt-enden and his activities has been adverse. Whether you agree with it or not, we feel that you would not deny him the right to reply to his critics, so the Echo invited him to give his views on the matter. He has given us a letter which was originally in answer to a highly defamatory article which appeared in the magazine "Oxon", and which lias had to be edited due to lack of space.

The main report on the Inquiry proceedings has been based on notes made by Christine Cowham, who sat through the five days of the case at the Town Hall, and to whom the Echo is greatly indebted. The City Council's proposals are : 1 ) To allow Somerton Marine to gravel a stretch of Meadow between 8-24 ft. wide all along the frontage with space for permanent parking for 4 vehicles, a boat park, fuel, water and gas storage areas and whole area to be marked off by 14" high bollards which will also extend on both sides of track to Walton Well Road. 2) Boat owners and customers will be allowed to drive across the Meadow and park while loading and unloading.

The .purpose of the bollards along the track is to prevent unauthorised vehicles from driving off it onto the Meadow because there will be no warden at the gate to check on the vehicles and the only person to control traffic will be the owner of the Boat Station. The City Council claim that this compromise is the only possible way of checking and controlling further encroachment, that it will tidy up this area of the Meadow and that the activities of the Boat Station are an amenity and benefit all the people of Oxford.

The objectors point out : 1 ) that Port Meadow is a registered Urban Common on which vehicular traffic and any form of structure is forbidden without the consent of the Secretary of State 2) that the contract of sale of Medley Boat Station did not include any land in Port Meadow, nor was the present owner or his predecessor ever given any rights to use the land. All he was given was access for a lorry once every 10-14 days and a van every 4-8 days. So all the rest of it, the gravelled areas, the cars driving across to load and unload, the fuel and water stores on the bank, etc. have been done without asking. They say the only real beneficiary will be Somerton Marine, not the graziers, who lose land and whose animals may be injured, not the people who like to fish, or bathe, or walk or play on the Meadow without worrying about traffic, bollards, litter and noise. They say that the City could have stopped the encroachment any time they wanted by a County Court order but they have not even tried to. It was only in 1979 that they commenced a High Court action for infringement of planning orders which they then suspended in favour of the present compromise.

What is more the City has not even got the necessary 2-3 majority of all the people with an interest in the case. Of the 209 Freemen only 33 attended Common Hall and the final decision 7-4 was made by a committee of 11. The rest were not told what was going on. The Commoners have said No - all 190 of them, and the local residents haven't been asked. It will take at least six months to get an answer from the Department of the Environment, but in the meantime it is worth bearing this in mind : Bossons Boatyard have said that if Medley Boat Station's customers can drive across the Meadow, why can't theirs?

Mr. Crittenden's reply In his letter, Mr. Crittenden disputes much of the evidence put forward by objectors at the Inquiry, and then goes on to say : "The Pro Medley Boat Station Party consists largely of one person, does it? Did you know that a petition supporting the boatyard was signed by 289 people in just two days? Most of the signatures were from ordinary people who had never heard of the Wolvercote Commoners (lucky devils). 30 signatures from Jericho and even some from Wolvercote. Many more said they would have signed it had they known about it.

A Boat Station, not a boat shop? What on earth are you talking about? How can you have a boat station and not sell things? Always operated outside the Law, have we? Didn't you know that in addition to having been established for centuries, we have planning permission for everything we do, and we also hold letters of permission from the Council? Who are you to say we should have been thrown off the river years ago, when we have been serving the Oxford public for centuries? Pouring effluent on the Meadow? My predecessor used to pour human excrement in the river. That, chaps, is why I built that tank there is all the fuss about.

So, what is this all about? First, it's an argument between armchair preservationists and a practical conservationist who has turned a decaying centuries-old boatyard into a going concern, while stopping filthy practices (no, not those filthy practices), [a reference to a brothel alleged to have been on the site at one time] cleared the junk of years from the bank and given 9 people jobs, thus conserving their human dignity and their right to work. At the same time we provide help to people, animals and birds in distress, using our facilities to give them help. Have we seen the Wolvercote Commoners on these occasions.

Well, yes. A member of the Wolvercote Commoners Committee, on a horse, using a torrent of obscene language to a family with young children who were quite properly and legally using the gate for access to bring their luggage across. Secondly, the once traditional gathering of Wolvercote villagers with Commoners' rights is now a political force with ambitions beyond its parish. Can you really see Burchardt, McDonald and Gotch, all of the professional classes, lovingly tending their geese? This is not a boatyard to them and others; it is a chance for people to make their political bones or ride their hobby horses at the expense of the livelihoods of ordinary working people.

These ambitions masked the genuine opinions people wanted to express at the Inquiry, opinions concerning bollards, tanks and gravel, which was what the Inquiry was supposed to be about. Let us hope these opinions were not lost in the super hype created by the Wolvercote Commoners and their friends. The Minister will finally decide on the merits of the application, which is his job, not the media's. Whatever his decision, it will concern the items applied for. It is well established that this ancient boatyard has existed, exists, and will continue to exist, and no amount of semi-hysterical articles will close